IFC Serve Themselves a Plate of Winterbottom’s ‘The Trip’

As of late, IFC have food some comfort food in the works of Michel Winterbottom. The filmmaker who is now tackling the well versed in the mass media tale of the Amanda Knox Murder Case, had recently delivered a two-hour cut of The Trip at TIFF — a downsized version from 6 television episodes that has or is about to air in the U.K. Late yesterday, IFC films picked up the property and will perhaps go about distributing it like they’ll done with Carlos – 2 separate integral versions – one for the channel, and one for the theaters for sometime next year. 

I was a big fan of the Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story pairing of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon – and here they reunite with Winterbottom in this road trip through the English countryside. Coogan is asked by The Observer newspaper to travel through the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, dining in fine restaurants and visiting various historic locations from the life of William Wordsworth. But when his girlfriend backs out on him, he has no one to accompany him on the trip. Enter Brydon, his best friend and source of eternal aggravation. After a half-hearted invitation where Coogan explains he’s asked everyone else and that Brydon is his last resort, the two of them set off in the car, armed only with a map and incredible comic timing. They spend much of the trip trying to one-up each other with hilarious, canny dueling impersonations of Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Sean Connery and Woody Allen to name a few. Largely improvised, the film follows the pair through foodie heaven as they stop at some of the best restaurants and inns in the north of England. Though the laughs never cease, the film still manages to reveal something about the nature of comedy, friendship and connection.